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Every weekend a group of off-road enthusiasts called the Terrain Tigers like to get their tyres dirty in an off-road location just off the town of Gurgaon, Haryana. The vehicle of choice for most members of the team is the Maruti Suzuki Gypsy. The Gypsy’s light weight combined with its rev happy engine, gives it commendable off-road credentials.

However, when you are going absolutely bonkers on steep uphill inclines, slushy ravines and muddy lakes, most standard production vehicles come across limitations and so does the Gypsy.

One member, Sumeer Tandon, decided to overcome these limitations by creating his very own version of the ultimate off-roader called the ‘Monster’. Based on the Maruti Suzuki Gypsy platform, it features suspension, tyre, differential, gearbox and engine modifications. Safety modifications include a roll cage and four point harnesses to keep you firmly in place on the Sparco bucket seats.

Beginning from the ground up, the Monster is fitted with mud terrain Yokohama tyres as Sumeer found them to be the best all round tyres with four star ratings for sand, mud, rocks and tarmac, also they generate less road noise on tarmac. The Yokohamas have a outer diameter of 33 inches and a width of 12.5 inches, the wheel rim size remains at 15 inches giving the monster a larger foot print which is necessary for hardcore off-roading where the more traction you have, the better the grip. The rims have been fitted at negative 50mm offset, so they are pushed outwards by two inches.

The bigger tyres obviously add to the unsprung weight of the vehicle, as a result a heavier axle was required to deal with the added bulk. The standard axles were replaced with Dana 44 axles, which are common fitment on Tata and Mahindra utility vehicles as well as the Jeep Wrangler to date!